Cap



A ril 4, 1939. E. w. HOLMES CAP Filed March 12, 1938 Edward 77717057265 .Ztorne ,3

Patented Apr. 4, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CAP Edward W. Holmes, Chicago, Ill., assignor to E. It. Moore Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application March 12, 1938, Serial No. 195,464

2 Claims.

leges and the like.

One purpose of the invention is to provide a cap having a stiff portion and a relatively yieldable portion or skull cap and to provide a ready means for attaching the two together and for detaching the one from the other.

Another object is to provide in connection with the type of cap indicated, a skull or head covering portion which is simple in construction and sufficiently flexible to be adaptable to heads of any sizes.

Other objects will appear from time to time throughout the specification and claims.

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing, wherein;

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through the cap with parts assembled.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken at line 2-2 of Figure 1' on an enlarged scale and with parts omitted.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the inner portion of the skull cap with lining parts omitted.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the cap assembled.

Like parts are designated by like characters throughout the specification and claims.

The cap is provided with a relatively stiff portion I which may be formed of corrugated fibre or cardboard or any other sufficiently stiff and light material. It is preferably provided with a cloth covering 2, which as shown, extends above and below the board I and gives it a neat and complete appearance. A button or ornamental stud 3 may be secured on the upper side of the mortar board portion and to it a cord 4 which carries a tassel 5 may be secured.

Positioned in or upon the motor board in any convenient location are one or more studs 6, which engage socket portions positioned in the skull cap portion. These socket and stud assemblies may be of any suitable type and in one form are generally like the same snap fasteners used in connection with gloves, garments and the like for removably securing together two members.

The skull cap or head engaging portion of the cap is preferably formed of hat makers buckram or some other relatively stiff fabric. It is also preferably formed to approximately the shape shown in Figures 1 and 4 by suitably formed dies so that it has the general shape of a cap and will tend, when free to do so, to retain that shape. As shown the buckram skull piece 8 is indicated in detail in the figures and is shaped to provide a generally flat portion or zone 9 which contacts the stiff flat portion i of the hat as shown particularly in Figures 1 and 4. It is in this fiat portion 9 that the sockets 'l of the snap fasteners are secured. The buckram cap portion 8 is slit or slashed as at H] and with a cap made as shown and shaped so that the slashings stand open when the cap is not under compression or tension, they may be approximately one-fourth inch in width at their open ends and extend to within approximately one-fourth inch of the flat portion 5!. With this arrangement and with eight such slashings in a skull cap, approximately two inches of draw is provided through the circumference of the cap before the buckram foundation portion is reduced to its smallest diameter. These dimensions are given merely as illustrating one embodiment of the present invention and the invention is not particularly limited to any particular dimensions or any particular number of slashings.

In the assembled cap the buckram portion is provided with exterior and interior coverings II, II, and the covering is preferably put on when the cap is so arranged that the slashings stand open or partially open. This arrangement is shown in detail in Figure 2. With the coverings in position upon the buckram body, the three are stitched together by stitching l2 which may be of any desired arrangement but which serves at a single operation to secure the buckram cap and the coverings, exterior and interior, together. The fabric which forms the covering is preferably flexible. It might be made of Lastex or similar fabric so that it is fully flexible and elastic, or it might be made merely of flexible cloth and in that case a binding or band I3 of Lastex or similar fabric, is secured to the exterior of the skull cap portion and a similar band of Lastex l4 may be secured to the interior. If one or more Lastex bands, such as the members I3 and M, are used, they will preferably be put in place at the time that the stitching I2 is done. Then at a single operation the coverings II and the bands l3 and I 4, if both are used, will be stitched in place to the buckram foundation portion. The stitching is preferably not continuous about the cap and thus does not destroy the flexibility and elasticity or in any way diminishes its capacity to expand and contract so that it accommodates itself readily to any different head size.

Instead of stitching the Lastex strips to the skull cap portion, two strips of Lastex may be laid side by side and then their adjacent edges may be joined by a crisscross stitch and thus the strips or bands, when folded together, form a trough-like member which holds snugly to the edge of the cap. This is, of course, merely one way of making the actual elastic member and of applying it to the cap. The invention is not limited to this particular construction. While the base or foundation portion of the skull cap has been described as made of buckram formed by a die to have in itself a head or skull shape, it might be formed of other material, it might be of any textile fabric, it might be of metal or it might be of plastic material. In one exemplification of the invention the skull cap whether formed of buckram or other material, is given, for example, a head size of 7 and the buckram base, if not subject to contraction or expansion, would stand to this '7 size with the slashes having a diameter of approximately one-fourth inch at their extreme outer ends. When the elastic member, whether it be a separate elastic band or an elastic covering, is applied, it will close the slashes, bringing their edges together and will, of course, reduce the size of the skull but because of the presence of the elastic members, the skull may conform itself to a wide variety of sizes of heads and may be so spread or enlarged that the slashes assume a width greater than that of one-fourth inch. This is made possible by the elastic member or members and thus by the construction shown, the skull cap is given in its free condition an initial size from which it may be expanded or contracted by the head of the wearer or by the elastic member or members. Since the covering and lining of the skull cap are not secured to the slashed base portion throughout, it is possible in cases of extreme contraction for the adjacent edges of a slash to slip over each other so that they overlie each other. The use of a buckram or other base portion which is itself somewhat elastic and flexible and which is initially molded or shaped by a die to approximately the shape of the head of a wearer, produces a skull cap which, when free to do so, always tends to assume a proper shape and which even when considerably contracted or expanded, operates with little or no distortion and,

therefore, looks well in use when caused to accommodate itself to a wide variety of head sizes.

The lining, although it may be made in many shapes, is frequently made in a pleated arrangement in which the pleats run downwardly toward the outer edge of the skull cap and, if desired, the pleats of the lining may be laid in to correspond with the slashes in the base portion of the cap. Where the pleats are used, they allow ready contraction and expansion, conforming, of course, to the movement and position of the base portion.

The expression base portion wherever it has been used, refers to the base portions of the skull cap. That is to say, in the form illustrated the base portion of the cap is the buckram member 8 having the central flattened zone 9. This expression has been used because the slashed skull cap member of whatever material it may be made forms in eifect the base of that portion of the cap which embraces the head or skull of a wearer and upon, within or around this base portion are secured the flat mortar board, the lining of the skull cap, the cover of the skull cap and the elastic bands if used.

I claim:

1. In combination in a mortar board cap, a rigid fiat top, a covering therefor, a skull cap, said skull cap including a base portion shaped to approximately the shape of a head said skull cap provided with slashes, extending inwardly from its edge and provided also with a lining and an elastic exterior cover portion, and additional elastic means tending normally to draw the edges of said slashes toward each other, the lining, the base portion and the cover being sewed together only at points spaced away from said slashes, the slashes being .free from sewing.

2. In combination, in a mortar board cap, a rigid fiat top, a covering therefor, a skull cap, said skull cap including a base portion shaped to approximately the shape of a head, said skull cap provided with slashes, extending inwardly from its edge and provided also with a lining and a flexible exterior cover portion, and elastic means ten-ding normally to draw the edges of said slashes toward each other, the lining, the base portion and the cover being sewed together only at points spaced away from said slashes, the slashes being free from sewing.

EDWARD W. HOLMES. 

